NJ influencer seeks case dismissal
Pena's lawyers contend Habba lacks authority to charge him
By: Kaitlyn Kanzier
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... Lawyers for a Bergen County real estate influencer indicted in July [2025] in a real estate fraud scheme argue that the case should be dismissed, saying acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba had no authority to indict him.
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Cesar Pina's attorneys, Gerald Krovatin, Abbe David Lowell and Norman Eisen, filed on August 11 [2025] to have the case dismissed, saying Habba's term as interim U.S. attorney had expired when she signed Pina's indictment.
..... The U.S. Attorney's Office did not immediately return a call for comment.
..... Habba's role role as U.S. attorney has faced scrutiny Her 120-day appointment as interim U.S. attorney expired on July 25, [2025] with the state's U.S. District court judges choosing to appoint someone else.
..... Desiree Leigh Grace, the first assistant U.S. attorney for New Jersey, was chosen to replace Habba. After that decision was made public, top officials at the Justice Department, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attention General Todd Blanche, posted on social media that Grace had been removed.
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In their court filing requesting oral arguments, Pina's attorney argued that the appointment of John Giordano as interim U.S. attorney before Habba on March 3 [2025] took up 21 of the 120 days "of the interim period afforded to ms. Bondi."
..... President Donald Trump announced Habba as the interim U.S. attorney on March 24, [2025] declaring "effective immediately," and three days later, Bondi confirmed the appointment of Habba effective March 28, [2025] the documents said.
..... The attorneys said that because Giordano used 21 of the 120 days, Habba's appointment expired on July 1 [2025] and anything she did after that was "without proper authority, and null and void."
.... Pina's attorneys are also demanding that Habba no longer supervise or be involved with the case's prosecution.
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The indictment against Pina was signed on July 7, [205] almost a week outside the date his attorneys said was Habba's last day. The attorneys said Bondi can't "stack" multiple interim appointments, and that the Unities States Title Code regarding judicial vacancies say "120 days after appointment,' not '120 days after an appointment."
..... "It is the filling of the vacant spot - not the name of the peons - that trigged the 120-day period," the court documents said. "The Justice Department itself has previously endorsed this view."
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Habba is ineligible to serve as the acting U.S. attorney because her nomination is currently pending before the Senate, the documents said. Furthermore, her appointment as special attorney "cannot be sued to circumvent the vacancy apparatus to appoint an ongoing U.S. Attorney."
..... Pina's lawyers said Bondi "devised a ''Rube Goldberg' contraption to try to effect the appointment of Ms. Habba as U.S. Attorney, circumventing the congressionally mandated appointment scheme and the Senate's advice and consent role."
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They argued that the appointment of a spacial attorney can't be sued as "an venality method" to appoint an "indefinite U.S. Attorney."
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Pina, a Franklin Lakes resident known as Flipping NJ on social media, is charged with running a multimillion-dollar Ponzi-like fraud, conspiring to launder drug proceeds, laundering money represented to be drug proceeds as part of a sting operation, and bribing a New jersey politician.
..... Paterson councilman Alex Mendez was accused of accepting $50,000 in bribes from Pina in exchange for supporting a development project.
..... Charges against Pina include two counts of wire fraud, one count of money laundering conspiracy, two counts of money laundering and one count of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds. The real estate influencer was first federally charged in October 2023 after being hit with a mountain of lawsuits.
..... This is the second case challenging Habba's authority as acting U.S. attorney. Lawyers for Julien Giraud Jr. are also arguing that Habba's appointment violates the law.
.... Staff writer Katie Sobko and Joe Malinconico of Paterson Press contributed to this story.